NEWS: Southern Stars Updated Pregnancy Policy

The pay rises for Australian women cricketers, announced yesterday, have been quite rightly much-lauded: top players will now be able to earn in excess of $100,000, with CA overall increasing its female player payment pool from $2.36 million to $4.23 million, with maximum retainers for the Southern Stars rising from $49,000 to $65,000.

However, many of the articles on this subject also mentioned that an updated “pregnancy policy” was now in place, but failed to elaborate on this. So what are the details?

CRICKETher talked with a Cricket Australia spokesperson, who confirmed that the new policy is as follows:

“If a pregnant player advises her team (WBBL, WNCL or Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars) that she does not wish to continue playing cricket in accordance with her Player Contract due to her pregnancy, the player may elect to:

1. Terminate her Player Contract by mutual agreement, or

2. Amend her Player Contract by mutual agreement to suspend the Player’s obligations to render skilled services as a cricket player during the Term until the earlier of:

a) Expiry of the term, or

b) Date from which the player notifies her WBBL team she wishes to continue playing cricket.”

CA also confirmed that it is entirely down to the player herself whether she continues to play while pregnant. As CA puts it, “The overriding objective is to make sure no player feels disadvantaged due to pregnancy.”

While the pay rises in themselves are clearly important, it’s great to know that CA are also working with players to be as accommodating as possible in other areas, too.